Olga Bubich

“I realize that I am fascinated by photos in the same way I've been fascinated, since childhood, by blood, semen and urine stains on sheets, or old matresses, discarded on pavements; by the stains of wine or food embedded in the wood of sideboards, the stains of coffee or greasy fingers on old letters - the most material and organic kinds of stains. I realize that I expect the same thing from writing. I want words to be like stains you cannot tear yourself away from.”
― Annie Ernaux and Marc Marie

“The water was warm like red wine served badly in summer.”
― Ellena Savage, Blueberries: Essays Concerning Understanding

“Capacious grief acknowledges that the trauma of the other is neither singular nor unique, that there are other others out there with whom we can share the burden. Perhaps only by expanding our grief might we be able to leave our trauma behind. And in sharing our burden – of writing, of representation, of otherness – we might transform that burden into a gift.”
― Viet Thanh Nguyen, To Save and to Destroy-Writing as an Other

“Like Anzaldua and Cha, I am more attracted to this kind of other [unknowable others], perhaps because unknowability comes closer to the enigma and danger of the writing process, approximating the fear a writer feels about unlocking what hides inside.”
― Viet Thanh Nguyen, To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other